Just a Tad

Seasons Greetings

This is a card I did for my friends at iFanboy who run one of the best podcasts and comic sites on the net. I got the basic idea for this last year after they posted an earlier card of mine.  I sketched the initial idea for this one on a napkin.  Classic.  God knows where that thing is, we moved!  I'm lucky if I can find socks.

I know the original sketch had the opening and closing panels pretty much as they are.  I know I also had the Santa cookie eating panel, the milk drinking and probably the crumbs.  I was intrigued by the idea of making each panel a graphic puzzle but I backed off in favor of clarity.

I didn't do the color.  When I gave it to Ron Richards, the San Francisco iFanboy, I said I'd like to see sort of a retro color style, like a silk screen print slightly out of alignment.  Ron got a recommendation from Jim McCann , the Eisner winning author of THE RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN (see a preview at that link).  Jim pointed Ron at Dan McDaid.  Man, he fit the bill perfectly.   He didn't do the silk screen thing but came up with textures that really made the "card" look rich and... well, "Christmassy."  Ron tied a bow on the package by giving the gutters an old cardstock color.  Voila, a Christmas greeting for the iFanbase.

So it's just a small piece of art for some friends that came out way better than expected.  But I have to confess that I wanted to add one last panel.  I wanted toddler versions of Ron, Josh and Conor, stunned, wide-eyed, pressing their faces pressed between the posts of a stairway bannister.  Alas, the concept was beyond my talent.

Maybe I need another napkin.  Best wishes of the season to you all.

--Tad

How to Pitch an Animated Series Pt. : Seriously, Are We Still Counting?

By far my most popular posts are those about pitching series and the development process.  If you haven't read them, it's worth checking out the archives.  I had a development meeting over at Disney Jr. just the other day and we got to talking about how things used to work... back in the day ...in olden times ...when dinosaurs walked the earth ...when Tad shifted over to Disney TV Animation.  

Every studio or network has their own method but the generally development is a series of steps:  pitch, outline, script, bible/marketing tool, (storybook), storyboard, animatic, pilot, focus group, and series. All that can take from nine months to a year or more, especially if things aren't going smoothly.

There's a reason for each of those steps.  Their ultimate goal is to remove any element of chance from the creation of a hit show.  But that ain't gonna happen.  The thing that's going to hit big with kids can change with every beat of a gnat's wing but that doesn't mean that process isn't useful.  There's plenty of useful information to be gleaned from each of those steps.  

Of course, more cynical individuals than I would say most of that is execs protecting their butts from higher ups. This theory says that if all the data points to success, a development executive can't be blamed if the show doesn't perform.  When the DROIDS and EWOKS animated shows tanked the response was a shrug and, "Who knew it could miss?  It was STAR WARS."  Whatever the reason those steps are ingrained in the industry.  The group I was talking to the other day had a hard time imagining producing shows without animatics or developing them without fully animated pilots.

But back in the mid-eighties when Disney TV Animation was starting up, the process was only pitch, outline, script, series.  There were only three places to sell animation in the US and they were ABC, NBC and CBS. You'd present about three art cards, if that, the premise of the show and talk about the lead characters.  Based on that ten minute conversation you'd get deal for a script and bible and you'd get that decision at that meeting!  You'd pitch in the Fall, get green lit to series in April and be on the air in September.  The system wasn't designed for quality productions and Disney pushed, and got, earlier pick-ups.

Those network execs made their decisions based on the overall concept and how the characters played in the script. And eight times out of ten, they went for something with marquee value like a known superhero, a popular movie or TV series or a big toy line. Those things didn't guarantee success but the hit and miss record of the seventies and eighties of the networks then was no worse than today.  

You may think that today's system blands out ideas.  Too many cooks in the kitchen, too much micro management. Taking a pilot to full animation for multiple focus group screenings may seem like butt covering but it actually allows the networks to take greater risks.

I bet there are more original animated series on TV today than at any other time in history. Plenty of them don't have anything approaching a high concept.  A sponge living on the bottom of the sea? Kids fighting boredom by inventing impossible in their backyard?  A 23-year-old racoon and blue jay? How do those pitches say "hit?"

But if the execs believes in the creativity of the show runners, they'll chance a script, then storyboard, animatic and finally a full pilot.  At every step the creator gets the opportunity to show what was in his head and flesh it out.  Meanwhile, the development folks aren't risking a huge outlay of cash all at once.  Ideas get a chance to breathe, mutate and adapt.

The role of the development exec has changed in a big way.   Today they are partners in the creative process, at least through development. They will call your show, their show and from their perspective it is.  They bought it, they nurtured it and they saw to your care and feeding.   That's a good thing because you want them on board, fighting for your show at every step of the way. In fact, at some studios the development exec may become a producer on a series. 

There've always been executives who take a producing title on a series or movie even if their role is insignificant but some may actually roll of their sleeves and do some heavy lifting.  But this is most likely to be the situation if the show isn't completely yours.  

I have two shows in development.   My show at Cartoon Network is 100% my idea.  My show at Disney Jr. is my adaptation of a Disney owned property.  At CN the execs explained why they bought my idea, pushed me to go wilder in my gags and character development and talked about the likes and dislikes of the audience that they want my show to appeal to.   They push but they wait to see if I step up to the challenge.

At Disney Jr., the lead characters I'm working with were created by someone else in a different medium. Since they appeared in more than one movie, they are considered a "Disney Brand."  That means my ideas had to get the go ahead from an internal brand management committee that decides what brands merit expansion (a big plus: they are ready to help promote the show throughout the company if it hits).  My current deal is only for the writing, although, given my Disney experience, the expectation is that I'll be the show runner if it goes to series.  But I'm working on their characters.

Currently, I'm in my second draft of the pilot script.  While I do that, my development exec is getting artists to work on character designs.  She's 100% open to my input and suggestions but if I keeled over dead tomorrow, the she would continue working on the show.  At this stage of development, she's the one shepherding the show, not me.  She is also the one with the resources that I count on to help me create a series that is partially targeted to pre-schoolers.  

The day to day experience of working on either show will be just as creative for me.  I'll take responsibility for the Disney Jr. show as much as for my original characters on Cartoon Network.  I've always enjoyed the process of creation and development executives are part of that process.  I'm sure there are sour apples out there but 95% of the execs I've worked with were not just "suits" but assets.

                                                                            --Tad

 

 

 

 

More Exploring

Who needs words?

I'm posting before I delete.  Some of these have something but my "inking" mostly obscured it.

Fighting My Rut

It's been too long.  I attended the CTN Animation Expo last weekend and had several professionals tell me they liked my blog, especially the articles about pitching.

Well, I'll try to come up with more to say about pitching but for now I'm going to talk about my creative process.  That was actually the point of this blog.  I want to explore the creative process of myself and others. So I'm going to do that in a new way by being very specific.

I love graphic storytelling. There is a type of entertainment that a comic can do that can't be duplicated in any other medium. I love how you can play with the panel by panel progression, the page turn and the impact of the page as a whole.

Digital comics can erase some of that but possibly brings its own strengths.  In any case, I'd love to create my own comic. I fully intend to but it will have to wait until I'm running an animated show as opposed to being one of the gogs in the machine.  It's simple economics.  If I'm boarding during the day, my free time is better spent developing new shows than by playing on the comic page.

However, that doesn't mean I'm not thinking of that comic in my future.  So rather than keep things a secret, I'll share the development of that comic whether it ever gets produced or not.

First off, there are two potential stories/casts/franchises that I want to play with.   One is EMMARYN and you can read my earlier attempt at her story in this very blog.  That's what the archive is for.  I've been told I was too hard on myself.  Maybe.  It will be interesting to return to it with fresh eyes.  The second idea already had interest from a comic publisher.  It's my animated pitch for ROCKET WYLDE AND THE PLANET SAVERS.  That's the one I'm playing with now.

So I'm thinking about Rocket, the kid, the lead, the center of my, possibly ongoing, story.  My default kid that I pitch is super energetic, impulsive and an impressive lack of common sense.  If you've watched Darkwing Duck, you've seen this kid.  Gosalyn Mallard.  I realized that Rocket, at least in the nebulous clouds of procreation between my ears is another chip off this block.

Now, I'm fully aware that I may return to this exact character type for Rocket but first I want to explore a bit.  I've mentioned ANYA'S GHOST by Vera Brosgol before.  At least I think I have.   I thought I did a whole post about it but I guess I just linked to it.  It's a wonderful story that is part slice of life young adult novel and part creeping, suspenseful horror.  I cannot recommend it highly enough.  Please, please, buy it and support true originality in graphic novels.  C'mon, give it a present. I bought it on a whim and was totally wowed by it. Neil Gaiman agrees with me. Here's a quick impression:

Vera Brosgol created a sympathetic but flawed heroine who becomes a better through the events of the story.  So beyond the action, suspense, personality stuff, there is a heart beating that gives the story richness.  This really affected me more than any comic in recent memory.  It impressed the hell out of me.

EMMARYN definitely has the potential for that kind of heart but I never thought much about it for the adventures of Rocket Wylde.  I can fill a story this action, both thrilling and gag-filled and entertaining characters but how much better if would be if the story had a pulse, a warm center that makes you really care.  Pragmatically, I'd rather write/draw a single, self contained graphic novel than a series anyway.  If I do my job right I can write another novel building on the characters and events of the first but still self contained.

So I've started exploring the design of Rocket.  Maybe he should be less cocky looking, less self assured. Here's some sketches I did the other night.  My first thought was to soften his hair to make him more vunerable looking.  

Check out #1.  Granted, I swung the pendulum a bit small in the other direction.  It's not that he couldn't work but he seems too young.  Yet, that could be a plus.  The basic conceit of The Planet Savers is that a kid resurrects the powerful guardians of a planet or at least toddler versions of them. He constantly struggles to control them.   A younger kid is going to have more trouble with that which leads to more gags.  After a few days away from this design, I can totally see it working.  If this was an animated series, I'd have trouble selling an action adventure protagonist this young but the great thing about comics, at least my comics, is that I don't have to consider that.

#2 is a slightly older version.  Costuming is going to be a major deal in itself.  I want it to look comfortable but of a different time, a future time.  But this doodle is bland to me.  It screams, "Redraw me with a personality!"  

#3 pushes outside of my box.  Forget the floppy hair and replace it with something short, almost "just returned from the barber and my first haircut" short.  This kid seems real to me.  He looks like a sidekick and that may be exactly what I'm looking for - a kid that you don't expect to step forward and be the hero.  There's a bit of Charlie Brown in him.   But as much as I like his face and what I'm seeing in his eyes, the rest is a mess.  I perched him on skinny legs to just shake things up. The shapes contrast but not in a  pleasing way.

#4 over on the left is an attempt to explore this new guy.  I lost something here.  Does he need the baggy eyes?  It doesn't seem like the same kid.  Giving him a stocky body makes him look like a toddler.  I'm not excited.

The little scribbles at the bottom are playing with him in action poses.

So the exploration will continue.  Strangely, I feel like I should nail down his outfit.  How futuristic should he be?  How nebbishy?  We'll see. Feel free to speak up about any of the sketches above.

See you sooner than later,

--Tad

Play Nice

I'm sitting in the Toyota Service department as my car is worked on.   I can't work on my development stuff so I thought I should write something for my blog.

It's no surprise that I can't seem to update this blog regularly.  I can't even maintain a consistent Twitter feed.  That must sound odd to anyone who has heard me interviewed because I will go on and on for freakin' hours talking about all sorts of crap.  

I did so recently when I was interviewed by Steve Huellet at The Animation Guild, Local 839.  I broke
their record for length of interview.  You can listen to it here.  While you're there, listen to the rest because there's some great history and insights contained in those oral histories.

I checked in after my interview was posted.  Someone in the comments called me a "diplomat,"  I guess that was for not trashing various execs or FolksWhoHaveWrongedMe.  In reality, I'M STILL IN THE BUSINESS.  I may find myself working for or with those people again.  Or even more likely, I might be up for a job where someone who is in a position to hire me asks a friend, "Say, you worked with Tad Stones.   What was that like?"

And that person might not have an important position but is just someone who shared space with me.  Or you, when you're looking for a job.   There was a Big Name Guy of the 70s and 80s who really changed the comic industry with his work... buuuuuuut he's known to be a bit of a jerk.  A young artist showed him his portfolio at a convention to get some constructive input but Big Name Guy sort of put on a show for his friends by trashing the artist.  There was nothing constructive about it.

FLASH FORWARD!  That young artist is a storyboard artist for a major director.  Big Name Guy has submitted his work for a storyboard position -- really, really good work.  The director turns to the young artist, "You know comics.  What's the story on this guy?"

"I don't know.  I only met him once and he treated me like a dick."   And with that, the portfolio of wonderful art was put on the reject pile.  And there is nothing unfair about that. The young artist wasn't being malicious or anything.  He just spoke his first impression of Big Name Guy. 

In film and television, it's not just about the quality of your work.  It's about working in the trenches with someone.  These are highly collaborative mediums and it's hard collaborating with an assbite. 

So don't be one.

 

 

Behind the Scenes

 

Not my scenes this time but the scenes of DON QUIXOTE by Rob Davis.

"I thought you were too busy to post," said the fan as he examined the horse's teeth.  Correct, but I just spent a couple of days correcting the perspective of a classroom scene and resizing all the characters for continuity.  I'm bad at perspective, I just am.  Since it was a classroom, there were LOTS of characters to be dealt with.  Not fun stuff but, hey, I'm being paid to draw.

Before lunch I was told the scene is being rewritten and, BTW, it's being reset to the school cafeteria.

Sigh.   Like I said, being paid so I can't get too upset.   But since we're awaiting the rewrite there's time to post.  Duncan Fergredo, the great Hellboy artist, twitted a link to the work of Rob Davis.  I instantly took to the simple lines, strong action and energy of the linked drawings.

Turns out he's been doing wonderful work in a variety of styles.  But I really like the loose feeling of this project.  Loose but absolutely solid.

Lucky for me, and by default, you, he wrote his own blog post about the reasons he chose this style for Don Quixote and his method of working.   Just the type of stuff I wanted this blog to be about.  So it's a short post from me but a juicy treasure on the other end of this LINK.  Check it out and ask Amazon to let you know when DON QUIXOTE comes up for sale.  

I have to see what's happening in the cafeteria.  -- Tad

 

 

Still Learning

Awaiting notes.  I have time.  I have a computer.  I have nothing really to say.

But that hasn't stopped me before.

I haven't posted anything in like... forever because I storyboard all day for Bento Box Entertainment then make a too long commute home where I storyboard my pilot for Cartoon Network.  If I could manage on less sleep I would because the going is slow.   

But this schedule has pushed me waaaaaaaaaay out of my comfort zone which is a good thing.  The animation community is filthy with incredible artists and I've been spoiled over the years by having budgets that allow me hire them to make me look good.  At this point the pilot is squarely on me so I've had to design not only characters but props and backgrounds.  Eventually they'll be redesigned by some of those talent filthy art types but for now I can't just scribble something and move on.  Whether or not my pilot moves to the next stage will be determined by the reaction to my board.  So just as I build up a little steam I have to stop and design the next locale.

But  all this drawing has made me improve and the fact that I'm sorta working in the style of my character designer is allowing me to look at my work in a fresh way.  I'm even liking my drawings!

My dad had the Famous Artist Cartooning Course.  I've posted pages from it in the past.  Their mantra was "You Learn To Draw By Drawing."  It's true.   When I started work at Disney, it was the sheer volume of drawing that turned talent into a sort of muscle memory.  But when I moved to Imagineering then back to features and TV, I drew less and less.  Sure I sketched and drew presentation artwork from time to time, but most of my day was filled with meetings and writing.

But this latest immersion in drawing is different for me because it's not my default style, whatever that may have been.   By day I'm working on Allen Gregory, a new prime time show for this Fall on Fox.  

The style of the show is about as far away from my natural design sense as you could have.  But making it work, getting the hang of it, and the daily routine of bashing my head against the wall until I can draw the characters the same in any two panels has exercised different lobes in my brain.  (To be clear, the head bashing is self inflicted in search of excellence.)  In a few weeks, I'll be back on BOB'S BURGERS for the second season, also nothing like my drawing style.  (That requires bashing a different part of my brain or at least a different wall.)  But it's all like doing the equivalent of doing a full exercise routine instead of just working on your biceps.  

So my work at home is a huge artistic release.  I'm proud of the work I'm doing during daylight hours but every show has its own rules about moving the camera, type of gags allowed, pacing, etc. but I get to set all that on my pilot so I'm supercharged when I sit down to work.

That lasts a good ten minutes or so before, "Why isn't this going faster?!!"  I can be a bastard to work for.  I'm way behind from where I wanted to be but Cartoon Network has been very  understanding.  They've seen most of what I've done so far, set to a temp track of my voice.  I put in way more poses than I should have at this stage.  Since the opening is a sort of self-contained "end of the last adventure" sequence I decided to go all out to communicate the tone of the rest of the episode.

I also put extra work into the introduction of the antagonist... which unfortunately involved practically animating twenty or so cats.  But the payoff is that the sequence is so funny that my wife thinks the show should be about the cats.   Wait, does that mean she doesn't like the other stuff?  Damn!

When writing the script, actually in the rewriting, things get refined to the point of feeling stale-- at least to me who's doing all those revisions.  Thankfully, as chronicled earlier in this blog, I listened to the spirit of the development notes instead of the particulars and wrote brand new sequences into what technically should have been just a polish pass.   That freshened things up.

Then when I went to storyboard and had to immediately cut five pages out of the script.  Those pages weren't wasted.  They were valuable in helping find the tone of the show, feeling out the characters, creating sequences that may pop up in other episodes and generally making us all feel comfortable enough to move onto the next stage.  But there's no way I was going to board an extra five minutes or so of material that would have to be cut.  Who does that writer think he is?

But I had to cut a LOT of funny stuff.  An entire character was excised who I thought would be in every episode.  But in an eleven minute cartoon every new character drastically takes away from the time with the leads.  Those are the ones the show depends on.  Those are the characters I'm selling.

Having watched the writers on BOB'S throw out gold to weave platinum, I'm taking the liberty to rewrite dialogue as I go to allow for new gags or increase story clarity.  I can do that because I have the permission of the producer ...who is also me.

At this point I'm surprisingly pleased with the quality of the work.  I'm afraid I'm going to have to lean on my artist to do fewer panels and poses at this stage.   They'll be needed for the animatic but for now I need the board roughed out to the end!  Jeez, the guy is such a prima donna!  

Glad to have had a little time to type to you.  Thank you for the kind comments about this blog while I was away.  Someday I hope to actually share what I'm drawing. --Tad

 

I'll Know It When I See It

 

That can be the most depressing statement an artist can hear during a production.  But if you're given enough direction and time it can be exciting because you are being challenged to shine.

Of course the usual scenario is the stuff of nightmares.  It's when your boss, be it studio, network, client, director or producer needs something in a specific amount of time and has no idea of how to describe it.  "I want the lead to look cool like Iron Man or James Bond.  He's like Jaws mixed with Johnny Depp or George Clooney."  And that's at least something.   Most times it's just, "I want the lead to look cool" which can mean anything from Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga.  

It pays to have the presence of mind to ask questions but often you're trying to take in so much as to what is wanted that you don't follow up every point.  

My Cartoon Network pilot has four leads.  There's some important secondary characters and a major antagonist but if you can't crack the nut of the leads, you don't have a show.  I found John Hoffman through  Mira Crowell at Bento Box.  Aside from being an artist herself, Mira works in production and also looks for talent on the internet.  I liked John's stuff and so did the network.

As far as input, we told John which of his pieces were in the direction we liked.  We talked other influences we'd like to see which turned out to be his influences too.   Most importantly, he had the (overly long) pilot script.  That's important because I don't want to tell him how to draw, I want to talk personality.  

Both the network guys and I thought John hit one of the characters on the first try (and no, I can't show you anything) which is great for two reasons.  The first, obviously, is that it's "one down, three to go."   But more importantly,  suddenly the universe of the series is partially defined.   I told John to pin it to his drawing board because any character he came up with had to work with that one.

John does his thing and sometimes I'll play with his designs digitally.  When I do, I make sure to show his original work as well as my own to the network.  So we've got a bead on three of them but one character, the leader of the group no less, has been incredibly elusive.  

 The usual thing is to just keep drawing, trying different things like widening/narrowing/enlarging the eyes or changing outfits.  I tried drawing poses that might suggest his personality but it was one of those "I can't draw" days.  You look at the mountain of drawings and pick things that you like, "This coat, these eyes, hair like that, etc."  You think you're zeroing in on the character but design breakthroughs rarely come from puzzle pieces.

You lose the element of being surprised.  You think you're getting close but when you look at the sketch the next morning it looks like all the others.  Best thing to do at that point is try something completely different.   Save only what the story calls for and go in a new direction.   At the very least it will give you a fresh perspective on the previous drawings.  At best, you'll be surprised.

The design ceases to be a collection of shapes to be shifted around and becomes a personality.  And that's what you're after.

So there's no magic method except trying to understand the character, the world it inhabits and draw until you find it.  --Tad

 

 

Comics VS Animation Storytelling

Today's a holiday in the US.  I gave notes on an episode of BOB'S BURGERS (please watch), notes to a character designer on my pilot (hope for the best) and found myself with time to post again (read on!).

I even have some subject matter that I've been sitting on.  So let's begin.

Comics.  Animation.   I'm no Paul Dini but I've done both.  Way more of one than the other but I've always studied comic strips, books and the process.  When I was still in college I tried selling a strip to syndication.  It was called FLIPSIDE and told the adventures of the gang at a radio station.  This was long before WKRP in Cincinnati, a TV series older than many of you.

 Anyway, there's a difference between doing sketches, gags or pinups and actually trying to produce an ongoing story.   I did three weeks worth of strips, shrank them down.   Redesigned the characters and redrew them.  Sent it to a syndicate but it didn't sell.  School was starting up and I never followed up with it.  Days after I graduated I started at Disney and never gave serious thought to creating published art for about thirty years.

If you look back at the early pages of this blog, you can read an issue of an original comic I pitched to ONI and the accompanying commentary as I tear it apart.  I may yet revisit that project.  But it taught me TONS.

And along they way I wrote and drew a handful of short comic stories.  The next one up will be in the Darkwing Duck Annual #1 out in March or April.  I worked with the Offical Darkwing Duck artist, JAMES SILVANI, who's a swell guy who spends have his time frolicking with the whales in Hawaii.   At least that's how he makes it sound when he's not scanning finished pages at 3AM.

James asked how it felt working on Darkwing again.  In truth, it didn't feel familiar at all.  

The reason is in the process.  Writing the dialogue, especially Gosalyn's lines, was the closest I came to feeling like I was working on the show but even the way dialogue is used in the two mediums is different.

A good rule of thumb for an action oriented comic is that no word balloon should contain more than 15 words.  I think I got that from a Peter David column.  This forces the writer to be succinct and allows room for the artist to tell the story graphically.  Of course you can have more than one balloon in a panel but the dialogue in each balloon should match the panel's visual.  If you have a split personality character shift from heavy sobbing to maniacal laughter in the same panel, just what is the artist supposed to draw?

In animation, we also try to keep a character's "speech" to a couple of lines at a time.  Same reason, it's a visual medium and you want to leave time (as opposed to "room") for the visuals to play.  

And of course there's another whole step in the process that you don't get in comics: actors.  What the voice sounds like and how the lines are performed can completely change the tone, if not the meaning, of the writer's original intent.

Darkwing Duck's character was molded by both Jim Cummings who did the voice and Ginny McSwain our casting and voice director.  As Jim performed those early scripts Ginny listened for anything he did that was unique.  Specifically I remember when Jim did a sort of squashed voice when Darkwing was hurt.  Ginny would remind him to use it instead of something more standard.   They built a performance vocabulary for the character that became second nature to Jim.

When I wrote the eight page comic story I ran it pass James along with some thumbnail sketches. He then sent me his pencils and I did some redline sketches over those because of my history with the characters.  Since James was inking the story too it was about as collaborative as comic team can be, at least through the black and white stage.

But animation is closer to a community affair. Once a script is approved it gets divided among character designers, prop designers, storyboard artists, BG layout artists, color stylists, BG painters and timing directors. Which is the appeal for me.

Working with a team that are all looking for the best way to tell the story and improving the gags is lots of fun.  Most days feature plenty of laughter.  I'd love to have the time and money for a writers' room to work through everybody's scripts and do the same at storyboard.

In some ways the eight page comic was like a puzzle.  I had a story that was, as usual, bigger than bigger than the allotted space.  So it's a matter of being efficient and funny at the same time in order to cram enough entertainment in the existing space.  In animation, as I said above, you leave time open for artists and actors to get the most out of the material.

 I still play with the cheats that you can do in comics that you can't do in animation.  Over one drawing of a punch Spider-man can deliver two quips and a comeback to Dr. Octopus.  In animation all you get is a grunt.  Each medium has strengths and you need to make the most out of them.   Which do I enjoy more?  I love the art of graphic storytelling and want to do more of it but I like the community of talent that shares my day when I'm working in animation.  I guess I'd choose the village.  -- Tad

 

 

Character Design Follow Up

 

I get comments:

Thanks, Tad! I'm always curious to hear how the preproduction folk get found for projects like this - most everyone I know who does character design and contract works for the studio doing the project in question, or has in the past. Is it common for TV animation to bring people in like this?

Posted by: Chris Schweizer

 

First off, make sure you click on Chris's name for the link to his website.  ONI PRESS, the same folks who brought you such diverse entertainments as WHITEOUT and SCOTT PILGRIM, publish Chris's tales of the Crogan family.  It's historical fiction centered around the family tree of a fictitious family.  Chris does an amazing amount of research to give the adventures a sense of reality.  Highly recommended.

Chris also has a great behind the scenes blog about the way he does his comics, often using examples from the stories he's currently working on.  Plenty of sketches too.  You can also get a newsletter about his projects that's sent to you through the actual, stick a stamp on it, avoid the rabid dog, stick it in the mailbox, mail!

 He's also a full professor of Sequential Art at SCAD-Atlanta.  But now to answer his question:

 

The challenge of doing a fully animated pilot (usually around 10 minutes) is that you can't promise a crew an ongoing job.  So even if an artist is coming to the end of a series, he has to weigh helping out with a pilot that may turn into a show against the knowledge that even if the pilot comes out well, it may be a long time before a decision is made to go into production... or not.  If he does the pilot will it keep him from taking a "real" job?  So where does someone with an approved script go for designer, storyboard artists and the like?

The nice thing about being an artist is that 90% of the reason you're hired is because of the quality of your work, not your age, your experience, who you know or your personal hygiene.  That's the other 10%.  So that means I can look at portfolios, comics and websites to find an artist.  Then it's a matter of artist availability and the size of the assignment.  

A storyboard artist only needs strong front and back character roughs to get  started but eventually the project will need cleaned up, full turn arounds to animate the pilot.  If I like the style of a designer new to the industry or not even in the animation business, I would probably use him for conceptual designs then hire a more experienced artist to do the final package.  

It's not uncommon for a network, even one that has it's own studio, to hire an outside studio to produce the pilot.  These studios put together a teams to produce a pilot subject to direction from the network and the creative lead.  If the network's studio did the same thing it would cost more because of their overhead and they can't take people of exiting shows.

(The rest of this post will be done through gritted teeth because I finished it, brilliantly of course, and didn't save it as I wrote and lost it.  Gnash, gnash.  Therefore I'm adding a new image by Chris to put me in a better mood)  

    

 

 Of course, I also call friends to describe my project and get their recommendations.  Yes, it's that old thing called networking.   This is less about character designs than searching for storyboard artists.  You need to know, not just their work but how they are to work with.  Suddenly, that 10% I mentioned earlier looms up as a much larger figure.  These artists are in a position to submarine your project.  Are they flaky?  Will they leave me in the lurch?  Can they add gags?  Can I stop them from adding gags?  There's nothing like hearing the opinion of someone who's worked with your candidate.

Back to design.   Given the choice I'd rather work with an artist with experience in animation.  After that, I guy with real experience in illustration, comic books, web strips, whatever shows that they hit deadlines and have worked professionally.  But at the same time, you want art that makes your show stand out from the pack.   I don't want to give Cartoon Network that looks like the shows they were doing 20 years ago.  As much as I love that stuff, the network as moved on and is looking for fresh visions.

Okay, I hope I've answered your question, Chris.

If you have questions, just leave them in the comments.   Happy Holidays! -- Tad